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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

How Can You Easily Repel Mice from Garden?

39 replies

Listlad · 12/05/2023 09:50

We moved home in January. There is old decking in the rear garden. The other evening I saw a mouse scuttling back under the decking. What’s the best way of getting rid of them. Putting poison down would surely leave the to die under the decking for example…

Thanks.

OP posts:
3dogsandarabbit · 12/05/2023 09:54

You can buy humane mouse traps and then just release them in the wild further away.

MereDintofPandiculation · 12/05/2023 09:59

Was it a mouse or a rat?

Mice are less easy to deter but less likely to move into the house and, personally, I wouldn’t bother too much (but I do have cats).

Rats are hyper suspicious (as you would be after centuries of persecution) so changing things around and frequent disturbance will help. Rats are more attracted to the house, so I would do something. You’re right about the bodies under the decking problem. You could try traps. Don’t try live traps because you can’t legally release them anywhere except perhaps your own garden, and if you try to kill the ones you trap, you have to do it humanely, by shooting or a single blow to the head.

Personally, I’d reconsider the decking

dontlookbackyourenotgoingthatway · 12/05/2023 09:59

Cat

GodspeedJune · 12/05/2023 10:09

MereDintofPandiculation · 12/05/2023 09:59

Was it a mouse or a rat?

Mice are less easy to deter but less likely to move into the house and, personally, I wouldn’t bother too much (but I do have cats).

Rats are hyper suspicious (as you would be after centuries of persecution) so changing things around and frequent disturbance will help. Rats are more attracted to the house, so I would do something. You’re right about the bodies under the decking problem. You could try traps. Don’t try live traps because you can’t legally release them anywhere except perhaps your own garden, and if you try to kill the ones you trap, you have to do it humanely, by shooting or a single blow to the head.

Personally, I’d reconsider the decking

It’s only the black rat or fat doormouse which are illegal to release. Both of which are rare, and only found in limited parts of the UK.

VenusClapTrap · 12/05/2023 10:15

🐈 🐈‍⬛ 🐈

Lillyrosemay · 12/05/2023 10:31

Don’t put poison out, other wildlife will eat it and die or local cats or other animals may eat the poisoned mouse and die. You either use snappy traps or humane ones where you catch and release. But decking is a known haven for pests so you’re on a loosing battle, and I’d be sure irs not rats.

Mangotime · 12/05/2023 17:40

Your garden is the outside world…. Mice live there. You surely can’t eradicate mice from the outside world?
Not meaning to be snarky at all, just not understanding the issue with mice living in the garden….

ApolloandDaphne · 12/05/2023 17:43

Poor mice. Leave them alone.

BewareTheBeardedDragon · 12/05/2023 17:49

If they are mice I'd leave them alone. If rats, as Mere said - disturbance is key, and scrupulous hygiene with food out there. Every day, several times a day, go out and bang the decking with a stick, in various places. Maybe lift one of two boards and move stuff around under there. If there's spaces between the boards get some bits of wood that fit through the gaps and push them through from above and leave them there for a few days, then lift them out and move them to other places on the decking. Keep moving them about as it will unsettle them and they may move somewhere quieter and less weird. If you see any holes, block them up. They hate having their rat runs changed.

Firebrickblue · 12/05/2023 17:52

Humane traps are not very humane… hours spent trapped and terrified then released somewhere where they may or may not find food and shelter and will likely be poisoned by someone else because no one wants them! Snap kill traps are most humane

Daftasabroom · 12/05/2023 17:52

Let the owls, kestrels, stoats and weasels deal with them.

AlliumFairy · 12/05/2023 17:53

Mice I wouldn't worry about but decking = rat home.

Mangotime · 12/05/2023 17:55

If you trap and kill them some new ones will just move in…..

PickAChew · 12/05/2023 17:58

No problem with mice outside. Just make sure they can't get into your house.

Rats, though 😠

WrinklesShminkles · 12/05/2023 18:00

You might end up repelling them into your house... Gardens are full of animals, there's no need to kill them if they are staying outside.

MereDintofPandiculation · 12/05/2023 20:17

GodspeedJune · 12/05/2023 10:09

It’s only the black rat or fat doormouse which are illegal to release. Both of which are rare, and only found in limited parts of the UK.

Show quote history

Grey squirrels too, under the Invasive Alien Species Order 2019. I stand corrected on brown rat. But it’s cruel to release it outside its normal territory, it’s not likely to survive.

titchy · 12/05/2023 20:21

Why would you want to, or even think it was possible to have a rodent free garden? Confused

Notamum12345577 · 12/05/2023 20:22

Listlad · 12/05/2023 09:50

We moved home in January. There is old decking in the rear garden. The other evening I saw a mouse scuttling back under the decking. What’s the best way of getting rid of them. Putting poison down would surely leave the to die under the decking for example…

Thanks.

A cat

Original poster
Listlad · 12/05/2023 22:01

MereDintofPandiculation · 12/05/2023 09:59

Was it a mouse or a rat?

Mice are less easy to deter but less likely to move into the house and, personally, I wouldn’t bother too much (but I do have cats).

Rats are hyper suspicious (as you would be after centuries of persecution) so changing things around and frequent disturbance will help. Rats are more attracted to the house, so I would do something. You’re right about the bodies under the decking problem. You could try traps. Don’t try live traps because you can’t legally release them anywhere except perhaps your own garden, and if you try to kill the ones you trap, you have to do it humanely, by shooting or a single blow to the head.

Personally, I’d reconsider the decking

I don’t know. It looked like a mouse but am not familiar with these creatures.

OP posts:
Original poster
Listlad · 12/05/2023 22:02

So it’s either remove the decking or get a cat. Are cats really up to the job? Do they deter or simply pick them off, one by one?

OP posts:
lljkk · 12/05/2023 22:27

Neighbour (has 2 dogs) went away for 3 weeks last year, that's when our cats found the rat nest in her garden. Many entertaining evenings listening to the loud squeaking & finding random small bodies on the patio.

DS is buying a house, survey found rodent droppings in the loft. We've had rodents in our loft(s).... repeatedly. Gnawing, scampering, zapped.

My 3 cats hunt a lot, we don't have a big garden, but I watched cat 3 catch a vole in the garden recently.

I just kind of think, if there are still voles in my garden, mice in my loft, rats in the neighbour's yard, in spite of my ever hunting cats, there are rodents flipping everywhere all the time.

Original poster
Listlad · 12/05/2023 22:33

lljkk · 12/05/2023 22:27

Neighbour (has 2 dogs) went away for 3 weeks last year, that's when our cats found the rat nest in her garden. Many entertaining evenings listening to the loud squeaking & finding random small bodies on the patio.

DS is buying a house, survey found rodent droppings in the loft. We've had rodents in our loft(s).... repeatedly. Gnawing, scampering, zapped.

My 3 cats hunt a lot, we don't have a big garden, but I watched cat 3 catch a vole in the garden recently.

I just kind of think, if there are still voles in my garden, mice in my loft, rats in the neighbour's yard, in spite of my ever hunting cats, there are rodents flipping everywhere all the time.

Many years ago a mouse found its way into our new build house and burrowed its way into the insulation within our gas cooker. I have never seen another since, until a few days ago.

OP posts:
MereDintofPandiculation · 12/05/2023 22:38

I wouldn't get a cat just as a rodent deterrent. Cats can be quite challenging, you need quite a lot of love to cope. At present two of mine have caught a mouse, and let it loose behind the vintage radiator. I haven't a hope in hell of getting it out of there (neither have they), so will leave baited live traps around overnight and hope it has the sense to go into one. I need quite a lot of love for the cats tonight!

millymae · 12/05/2023 23:03

We had a family of rats living under our shed. several years ago.
The Local Authority’s Pest Control Officer came and put traps down for us, showed us the various routes the rats were using to get to the nest, advised us to stop feeding the birds as it was also providing a ready source of food for the rats and to water round the shed with Jeyes Fluid on a weekly basis.
Apparently rats are all but blind and find their way back to the nest by following the trail of urine they constantly drop. The Jeyes Fluid masks the smell of the urine so makes it hard for them to find their way back.
He came back for the traps a couple of weeks later and we didnt see a rat again for ages.
The shed has long gone and we are back to feeding the birds and the hedgehogs again. The occasional rat has been seen at the bottom of the garden which doesn’t worry me too much but if it got to a family of them running around I’d definitely be calling the rat man again. A friend had an awful time when she had rats in her house.

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